South Sudan doctor wins UN refugee prize

A South Sudanese doctor who runs an overcrowded hospital with a dimly-lit surgical theatre and no regular supply of general anaesthetics on Tuesday won the UN refugee agency’s prestigious Nansen award.

Evan Atar Adaha’s Maban hospital in the South Sudanese town of Bunj serves more than 144,000 refugees from Blue Nile state in neighbouring Sudan, UNHCR said.

The hospital’s X-ray machine is broken, but Atar and his team perform nearly 60 surgeries per week in a room with just one light, with staff using “ketamine injections and spinal epidurals” instead of general anaesthesia, the agency said.

UNHCR chief Filippo Grandi said Atar’s “profound humanity and selflessness” had saved thousands of lives.

Adaha, known locally as Dr Atar, has been running Maban hospital — which was once an abandoned health clinic — in the northeastern town of Bunj since 2011.

When he first arrived, he said there was no operating theatre and he had to stack tables to create a work area.

Over the years, he has transformed the hospital and created a maternity ward and nutrition centre, as well as training young people as nurses and midwives.

The 120-bed hospital now serves around 200,000 people living in Maban county — 70 per cent of whom are refugees from Sudan.

The Nansen prize, awarded annually, is named for Norwegian polar explorer Fridtjof Nansen, who served as the first high commissioner for refugees during the failed League of Nations.

Former awardees include Eleanor Roosevelt and Luciano Pavarotti.